Ravinia 2021 - Issue 4

the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sir John Barbirolli commissioned a concert overture for the Hallé Orchestra in 1951, but a heart condition prevented Price from attending the premiere of this now-lost score. Another opportunity to make her first journey to Europe arose two years later when the French government programmed per- formances of her music. While Price made plans to depart via passenger ship from New York to La Havre on May 26, 1953, her rep- resentative promoted her published music in Europe. Tragically, Price never made the journey: she fell ill on May 24 and died of a cerebral hemorrhage on June 3. Earlier in the year, Price wrote Dances in the Canebrakes , a collection of three piano pieces “based on authentic Negro rhythms”—one of her last compositions. Dense, freestand- ing patches of canes, known as “canebrakes,” dot the landscape throughout the Southeast- ern United States. The nutritious and largely fire-resistant plants attract many species of wildlife and serve as fodder for domesticat- ed animals. In the 19th century, the thicket also provided shelter for escaped slaves slow- ly winding their way toward freedom in the North, symbolically a safe boundary between the slaves and their enslavers. Price’s Dances in the Canebrakes offers a be- hind-the-cane view of African American life through its three dances, each simply struc- tured into three parts, the first and last using the same melody and rhythm, and the second offering contrasting material. Nimble Feet evokes the syncopated rhythms of ragtime or, perhaps, the handclapping and leg-patting of juba. Tropical Noon is a more casual dance for a sultry summer day. The Silk Hat and Walk- ing Cane were emblems of the white gentry donned by African American performers in their larger-than-life cakewalk dances. The word “cane” purposefully ties together the cakewalk’s caricature of slave masters with the escape of slaves through the canebrakes. William Grant Still arranged Dances in the Canebrakes for orchestra not long after Price’s death. Their families had known each other in Little Rock, and they remained in cordial contact throughout their careers. The Rob- inson Center, a large public facility in down- town Little Rock, constructed between 1937 and 1939 as a Public Works Administration project, includes the large Robinson Center Music Hall, a modern convention center and hotel, and the William Grant Still Grand Ball- room and Florence Price Atrium immediate- ly outside the ballroom doors. Still, who later lived in New York City and Los Angeles, has been widely heralded as the “Dean of African American Composers.” Less well-known is that the Chicago Defender proclaimed Price “Dean of African American Composers of the Midwest.” %EDĎIC+ SMETANA (1824–84) Vltava ( The Moldau ) from Má vlast ( My Fatherland ) Scored for two flutes and piccolo, paired oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, harp, and strings The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana creat- ed a cycle of six symphonic poems, entitled Má vlast ( My Fatherland ), between 1872 and 1879, a period of increasing deafness and ill health for the musician. These six descriptive works commemorated in music Czech myths, historical events, and the landscape. The sec- ond symphonic poem, the most popular of the set, paints a musical image of a journey down the Vltava (Moldau) River as it winds its way through the city of Prague. Smetana provided an outline of this musical journey: “The work depicts the course of the Moldau, beginning from the two small sourc- es, the cold and warm Moldau, the joining of both streams into one, then the flow of the Moldau through forests and across meadows through the countryside where gay festivals are just being celebrated; by the light of the moon a dance of water nymphs; on the nearby cliffs proud castles, mansions, and ruins rise up; the Moldau swirls in the St. John’s rapids, flows in a broad stream as far as Prague, the Vyšehrad appears, and finally the river disap- pears in the distance as it flows majestically into the Elbe.” Each element of Smetana’s pro- gram, or sequence of events, parallels a theme in his symphonic poem. There are eight musical divisions. The “Two Sources of the Moldau” in E minor begins with swirling lines in the flutes and clarinet, pizzicatos in the violins. The broad, majestic Moldau theme eventually emerges. Smetana’s liquescent melody resembles the Bohemian children’s folksong “Kočka leze dírou” (“The cat crawls through the hole, and the dog Bedďich SPetana E\ Geskel SaloPan through the window”), although his sym- phonic version is in minor rather than major. The “Forest Hunt,” robustly played by the horns, rises above the swirling river. A “Peas- ant Wedding” draws attention from the Moldau (the meter and key change) to a bu- colic scene on the shores. Undulating figures return in the flutes and clarinet during the “Moonlight: Nymphs’ Dance.” The “Return of the Moldau” reintroduces the majestic, minor tune. A tumultuous outburst in the bass drums and timpani portrays the “St. John’s Rapids.” The “Moldau in Its Greatest Breadth” sets the river theme in E major for full orchestra. A sturdy, imposing hymn in the brass and winds em- bodies the Vyšehrad fortress that looms over the Moldau (“Vyšehrad Motive”). The river flows off into the distance. Zdeněk Fibich conducted the premiere of The Moldau on April 4, 1875, on Zofin Island, in the middle of the Moldau River, Prague. ANTONN D9OσK (1841–1904) Slavonic Dance in G minor, B. 83, no. 8 Scored for flute and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, and strings Czech composer Antonín Dvořák catapulted to international fame on the merits of his na- tionalistic instrumental compositions. Jo- hannes Brahms, the elder statesman of tradi- tionalist German musicians, recognized rare talent in Dvořák’s Moravian Duets and rec- ommended the unknown Bohemian to his own publisher, Fritz Simrock. Not only did Simrock accept those duets for publication, but immediately commissioned a set of Sla- vonic Dances, op. 46 (1878). $nton¯n 'voď£k Realizing the momentous opportunity before him, Dvořák speedily produced eight dances in parallel versions for orchestra (B. 83) and four-hands pianos (B. 78). His minuscule royalty amounted to a small fraction of the profits Simrock reaped from this phenome- nally successful publication. These original, folk-styled tunes emulated actual peasant forms: furiant, polka, sousedská, and skočná. Nine years later, Dvořák negotiated a price ten times higher for his second set of eight Slavonic Dances, op. 72. ARTURO MƒR4UE= (b. 1950) Conga del Fuego Nuevo Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two B-flat clarinets and E-flat clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, suspended cymbal, congas, snare drum, quijada (donkey jaw), tambourine, cymbals, bass drum, tubular bells, triangle, glockenspiel, and strings Arturo Márquez was born in the town of Ála- mos in the far southeastern portion of Sonora in Mexico. His father, the senior Arturo Márquez, was an Arizonan of Mexican de- scent, a carpenter, and mariachi violinist whose own father had been a folk musician. In 1962, the family moved to La Puente, CA, where young Arturo studied violin, piano, and trombone and composed his first works. He returned to Sonora five years later and, though still a student, became director of the newly established municipal band in Navojoa. Márquez entered the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City in 1970 for stud- ies in piano, music theory, and composition. Subsequently, he tutored privately with com- poser Jacques Castérède in Paris between 1980 and 1982. Márquez taught composition at the Escuela Nacional de Música during the 1980s and 1990s, with a two-year gap to complete his master’s degree in composition Arturo Márquez RAVINIA MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 46